The highly anticipated FPS/RPG S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl has gone gold. With over 6 years in development, the game is one of the highly anticipated titles due to come out this year. The game should sport mind blowing visuals and intensive gameplay.

Flock, THQ executive vice president, speaking to a crowd of about 100 journalists, said S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will "ship in March," and online retailers are listing it as having a March 20 release. The game is rated M for Mature (blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, use of alcohol), and will retail for $39.99.

Reminds me of that simpsons episode where milhouse is playing "Kevin Costner's - Waterworld"
he moves the stick to the right and the character moves one step and it goes
"Game over! Insert 20 quarters to continue"
Milhouse: "WHAT A RIP!....*starts feeding machine quarters*"

Well the I hear the open beta was getting pretty good news. And the visuals do look good from what I have seen, though in technical terms somewhat dated. It's not all about technology though. I know I want the game, and for 40$, hell yeah.

The screenshots look great, mostly.
Too bad the weapons effects are ridiculous.
The assault rifles freakin look like flame throwers, and the rpg? I've shot few rounds with light anti-armor rocket launchers (M72 LAW = aka. 66 KES 88 in Finland) and seen dozens of rounds fired and that's not what they look like.

I really hope the sounds are not left on the background. For example a shot with a rocket launcher is more of sound than a flash of flames.